Jeff Bye

May 29 - July 12, 2025

FEATURED ARTIST

Featured

Jeff Bye

Jeff Bye (b. 1971) He attended the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) for his undergraduate degree and spent a year abroad in Italy under the European Honors Program. He received his MFA in painting from The School of Figurative Art, also known as The New York Academy.

ABOUT THE SHOW

Cove Street is proud to present Jeff Bye's solo show, Frayed Edges, in which the artist continues his exploration of gritty urban and industrial scenes. These paintings are compelling not only for their vibrance, complexity and skill level, but also for an exceptionally strong sense of place. These works seem to transcend the visual sense, also evoking the sounds, smells and energy of the place depicted: the car horns, radios, sirens, human voices, and restaurant aromas typical of inner city neighborhoods full of run-down, often graffiti’d structures; the morose and musty stillness of the interior of a grand historic theater, abandoned to time’s slow, relentless unraveling; the briny smell of salt and sea, the cries of gulls, and the sound of boats bobbing softly against a wooden wharf. Bye renders his subjects con amore, contrasting blurry, soft focus, abstracted areas with others sharp and rich in detail. The effect is simultaneously edgy and romantic.